Apr
3
This was another debatable one; in fact, I’ve changed my position on this at least three times while writing the piece.
When you only look at the box scores, going from Mike Wallace to Kenny Stills is a downgrade. It’s difficult to replace 67 catches for 862 yards and 10 touchdowns.
It should be noted that I was firmly in the camp of keeping Wallace despite whatever problems he might have had with the team. When the Stills trade was announced, the idea of pairing the two receivers up on the outside despite their rather similar skill set was exciting.
With that being said, as much as it might have been preferable for the Dolphins to have kept Wallace and given him and Ryan Tannehill (and whoever else he might have had issues with) another chance to patch things up, there were problems.
The chemistry between the two was horrid at the start and only got worse, Wallace never tried to track down passes thrown to him (and, no, Tannehill wasn’t exactly Dan Marino either), and Wallace did have plenty of drops in his two years in Miami.
Oh, and let’s not forget that contract.
So why is Stills an upgrade? Much like Wallace he’s a speed threat, however, he’s more likely to track down passes and make the catch. Somehow when Stills was traded to the Dolphins, his long completions were written off as being the product of Drew Brees, yet Brees isn’t exactly known for his arm strength (he is more accurate, though).
Then there’s the previously mentioned issues Wallace had with his quarterback. Once again, not really casting blame on one guy over the other, but it does help sometimes to split a tandem up if it’s not working, while also acknowledging that sometimes a pairing between two players doesn’t work regardless of the talent level of both players.
Throw in the age difference and you have the Dolphins replacing a temperamental, older and more expensive receiver with someone who could do his job and has shown to do it better. Stills has had catches of 69, 46 and 45 yards while Wallace’s best in 2014 was 50 with no other catch going over 40.
That’s an upgrade, and I didn’t even mention the Pro Football Focus grades (Stills: 5.2. Wallace: minus-0.9).
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